Guardian Quiptic 1115 Pan

by

Thank you to Pan. Definitions are underlined in the clues.

Across

4. Cop guarding god leaving hospital in Texas city (6)

DALLAS : DS(abbrev. for “detective sergeant”/a policeman/cop) containing(guarding) “Allah”(the name of God/the Supreme Being in Islam) minus(leaving) “h”(abbrev. for “hospital”).

6. Beautiful lass taking drug to party (4,4)

FINE GAEL : FINE(beautiful/nice) GAL(girl/lass) containing(taking) E(abbrev. for “Ecstasy”, the drug).

Defn: Political … in the Irish Republic.

9. Small drink that’s for shooting party’s guide in Scotland (6)

GILLIE : GILL(a small quantity of liquid/drink, equal to a quarter of a pint) + IE(abbrev. for “id est”/that is/that’s).

10. Left share covered by legal agreement (8)

DEPARTED : PART(share/a bit of a whole) contained in(covered by) DEED(a legal agreement conferring ownership or legal rights).

11. Boy cycles to end of platform to help Southern train attendants (11)

BRIDESMAIDS : B(in Internet slang/texting, “boy”/brother/bro, as an address for a friend or associate) RIDES(… on a bicycle, say) plus(to) last letter of(end of) “platform” + AID(to help/assist) + S(abbrev. for “Southern”).

Defn: …, the train/piece of material trailing a wedding dress, that is.

15. Republican in reflective frame of mind visiting downtrodden individual (7)

DOORMAT : [R(abbrev. for a member of the Republican Party) contained in(in) reversal of(reflective) MOOD(a frame/state of mind/one’s prevailing emotions) + AT(visiting/being in a specific place, as in “they were visiting the sights”).

17. Elevated position embraced by parent’s artistic movement (7)

DADAISM : DAIS(an elevated position/a raised platform) contained in(embraced by) DAM(the female parent, especially of a domestic animal).

18. Shopkeeper kneading her bread round remains of fire (11)

HABERDASHER : Anagram of(kneading) HER BREAD containing(round) ASH(the remains of a fire).

Defn: … selling small articles for sewing, dressmaking and knitting.

22. Traditional story about collecting a penny tax in Anglo-Saxon England (8)

DANEGELD : [Reversal of(… about) LEGEND(a popular traditional story) containing(collecting) A] + D(abbrev., pre-decimalisation, for the “penny”, unit of British currency).

23. Water found in edges of Charlie’s hat (6)

CLOCHE : LOCH(a lake/body of water in Scotland) contained in(found in) 1st and last letters of(edges of) “Charlie“.

24. Rebel with pointed object intercepting letter from abroad to the Queen (8)

MUTINEER : TINE(the pointed part/prong of a fork) contained in(intercepting) [MU(the twelfth letter of the alphabet from abroad (relative to the UK), specifically, Greece) plus(to) ER(abbrev. for “Elizabeth Regina”, the Queen).

25. Dictator imprisoning Sudanese leader in warehouse (6)

DESPOT : 1st letter of(… leader) “Sudanese” contained in(imprisoning … in) DEPOT(a warehouse/building for the storage of goods, etc.).

Down

1. Humanitarian crisis caused by a 25 in unoccupied France (6)

FAMINE : AMIN(Idi, a former despot/answer to 25 across, of Uganda) contained in(in) “France” minus its internal letters(unoccupied ,,,).

2. Team getting victory launched revolutionary air-to-air missile (10)

SIDEWINDER : SIDE(a team in a competition) plus(getting) WIN(victory) + reversal of(launched, in a down clue/raised from ground level upwards, as with a rocket, say) RED(a revolutionary).

Defn: … in the US military.

3. English king upset large part of church before start of divorce is declined (8)

RELAPSED : Reversal of(… upset, in a down clue) [E(abbrev. for “English”) + R(abbrev. for “Rex”/king)] + L(abbrev. for “large”) + APSE(a large recess in a church) + 1st letter of(start of) “divorce“.

4. Menial worker follows lad smuggling diamonds (8)

DOGSBODY : DOGS(follows/trails after) + BOY(a lad/young man) containing(smuggling) D(abbrev. for “diamonds”, one of the suits in a deck of playing cards).

5. Drug used in game turned up in sweet (8)

LOLLIPOP : Reversal of(… turned up, in a down clue) [PILL(a form in which a drug/medicine is taken/used) contained in(in) POOL(game played on a small billiard table)].

7. Creatures eaten by giant spiders (4)

ANTS : Hidden in(eaten by) “giant spiders“.

8. Lecturer joining end of impromptu party game (4)

LUDO : L(abbrev. for “lecturer”) plus(joining) last letter of(end of) “impromptu” + DO(a party/a social function).

12. Closure of pub in old hamlet somehow put on hold (10)

MOTHBALLED : Last letter of(Closure of) “pub” contained in(in) anagram of(… somehow) OLD HAMLET.

13. Drink for drunk not starting to get cold during snooze (8)

NIGHTCAP : [“tight”(drunk/in an intoxicated state) minus its 1st letter(not starting) plus(to get) C(abbrev. for “cold”)] contained in(during) NAP(snooze/a short sleep).

Defn: … taken shortly before bedtime.

14. Best-dressed males standing trial (8)

SMARTEST : Reversal of(… standing, in a down clue) RAMS(males of the sheep species) + TEST(a trial/an evaluation).

16. Noah may be relaxed about source of gopher wood (8)

MAHOGANY : Anagram of(… be relaxed) NOAH MAY containing(about) 1st letter of(source of) “gopher“.

19. Like retired Victorian PM maybe after a 13? (6)

ASLEEP : AS(like/similar to, as in “he has the same qualities as a saint”) + reversal of(retired) PEEL(Robert, former Prime Minister of the UK during Queen Vitoria’s reign).

Defn: A state in which one is, maybe, after a nightcap/answer to 13 down.

20. Man in garden determined to eradicate insect (4)

ADAM : “adamant”(determined/resolute) minus(to eradicate) “ant”(a social insect).

Defn: …, the Garden of Eden, that is.

21. Style worn by new Danish king (4)

CNUT : CUT(style/design, as in “the cut of his clothes”) containing(worn by) N(abbrev. for “new”).

18 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 1115 Pan”

  1. Fine Gael is one of those you know but still need all crossers to dig up, whereas ie after gill is a gimme (Barley Mow to the rescue!), and bridesmaids was a bung, never mind assembling the Lego bits. Danegeld, otoh, though heard of, needed a bit of nutting out. Mutineer and relapsed would have too, but the crossers made them bung and back-parse. Quite fun, thanks Pan and scchua.

  2. An excellent puzzle. I needed MUTINEER parsed, as I didn’t know TINE. FINE GAEL was especially good

    Ta Pan & scchua

  3. [As for the cloche (again!), Mrs ginf always said you’d have to look like young Francesca Annis playing Lillie Langtry to look good in one]

  5. Good crossword but again a bit more difficult than today’s Cryptic, IMHO.

    I liked BRIDESMAIDS, DANEGELD, DOGSBODY, NIGHTCAP and ADAM. A rather redundant ‘a’ in 1D.

    Thanks Pan and scchua.

  6. This was a quick but enjoyable solve. FINE GAEL was LOI but eminently gettable. Second last was CNUT – I have never seen that spelling for Knut/Canute and couldn’t believe it existed.

    [“Allah” is the Arabic word for god and hence used in Islam. But some Arabic speaking christians also use it and here in Malaysia bibles and church services in the local language also use Allah, much to the consternation of some moslems.]

  7. An enjoyable puzzle. I think my favourite was 20d ADAM – very neat.

    Re 11a, setters have for years been using “boy” for B (and “girl” for G) without any dictionary support for these as standard abbreviations. If you’re right scchua about the internet slang / texting use (I haven’t come across it) they will finally have a justification!

    (I also wondered about the use of “to” in both 11a and 24a. In what context can it mean “plus”?)

    Thanks Pan and scchua.

  8. The SIDEWINDER is a species of rattlesnake, American like the missile.

    The Mothball Fleet in the US Navy is a set of old ships kept on reserve in case they’re needed. I remember seeing the one in Suisun Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay Area, on the train from San Francisco to Sacramento. Wikipedia says “The usual fate of ships in the reserve fleet, though, is to become too old and obsolete to be of any use, at which point they are sold for scrapping or are scuttled in weapons tests. In rare cases, the general public may intercede for ships from the reserve fleet that are about to be scrapped – usually asking for the Navy to donate them for use as museums, memorials, or artificial reefs.”

    If (as I now know) a gill is a quarter of a pint, which makes it half a cup, what ever us is there (pace Barley Mow) to half-a-gill and a quarter gill, and the nipperkin and brown bowl if they’re even smaller?

    Thanks, Pan and scchua, including for the pix.

  9. When I think of SIDEWINDER I remember the REM song (The sidewinder sleeps tonight) which, I have just read, refers to the wire (coil) that joins the handset of a phone to the main part and it is sleeping because no-one is answering.

    Did not parse LOLLIPOP or FINE GAEL (which I had to reveal)

    Favourites same as Robi @5

  10. Much closer to genuine “quiptic” level than other recent puzzles. But again the Monday cryptic is easier! Thanks all.

  11. This was notable for the huge number of correct answers I put in unparsed: the def being so clear (sometimes with a bit of help from crossers) that the wordplay was superfluous. Examples, BRIDESMAIDS, DOORMAT, DANEGELD, DOGSBODY, MUTINEER, SIDEWINDER, HABERDASHER… Ip liked the “train attendants”. However, I did end up revealing FINE GAEL (well, it makes a change from DUP, at least).

  12. I was definitely Unready for DANEGELD as I convinced myself it was going to be a fairy story ending in Poll. Thank goodness we don’t have laid-back PMs ASLEEP on the job these days.

  13. I somehow always expect these odd grids to have a message in the exposed lights. Disappointed once again.

    This had a fair chunk of “local colo(u)r” and thus was difficult for this non-native. The spelling of CNUT and DANEGELD definitely required the cryptic prescription but certainly were fair. FINE GAEL was a step trickier but still overall good fun.

  14. A gill is strictly a quarter of a pint but when asking for a glass of beer in the north of England it’s half a pint. (Or it was some years ago).
    Hasn’t the law just changed in Sarawak to allow Christians to call God ‘Allah’?

  15. A good workout. But not sure this is an easy intro to cryptic as I’d always understood Quiptic should be?

  16. [E+W@14, not a change of law per se, but the High Court ruled that a recent ban was unconstitutional so the use of Allah for all gods by non-Muslim speakers of Bahasa Malaysia is again permitted. This affects mostly the states of Sabah and Sarawak on Borneo and is consistent with the practise in Indonesia and Arabic countries.]

Comments are closed.